Posts Tagged ‘early’

Battleships West Virginia (BB-48) (sunken at left) and Tennessee (BB-43) shrouded in smoke following the Japanese air raid Dec. 7, 1941. Courtesy of the U.S. Naval Institute Photograph Collection. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

From Naval History and Heritage Command, Communication and Outreach Division

Part two on a 3-part series about the salvage operations that brought USS West Virginia (BB 48) back to the fleet Sept. 23, 1944 after being sunk in the attack at Pearl Harbor.

“We keep them fit to fight”

When the smoke cleared after the attack Dec. 7, 1941, 19 ships berthed at Pearl Harbor were ...

It’s that time again: another course started; another blog to go with it. This one was inspired by me reading Francis Haskell’s book (along with a few other volumes) on Charles I and art collecting in 17th century Europe. First instalment here.

While he was considered to be in touch with the average middle-class American, Jackson quietly became one of the wealthiest presidents of the 1800s. “Old Hickory” married into wealth and made money in the military. His homestead, The Hermitage, included 1,050 acres of prime real estate. Over the course of his life, he owned as many as 300 ...

An interesting history-related post from History Matters: Historical Musings of Jared Frederick:

The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show

Having participated this week in the wonderful international Beatles conference "It was 50 Years Ago Today," I felt it an opportune time to reflect on the Fab Four's first big show over here "across the pond." As you may know, tonight marks the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ American debut on CBS’s The Ed Sullivan Show. In the half century since, this particular program has been heralded as a hallmark moment in television history as a turning point in communication, culture, and music. Millions gathered around their rabbit-eared ...

Yes, the United States Navy has teams of bottlenose dolphins trained to detect mines, other undersea objects and enemy divers. During training in the Pacific off the coast of San Diego, California, last month, a dolphin named Ten alerted his handlers to the presence of a suspicious object in an area where the trainers hadn’t planted anything. A week later a second dolphin, Spetz, alerted in the same area. He was sent back with a marker to pinpoint the precise location so the object could be retrieved. When the Navy divers recovered it, they found it was a Howell torpedo ...

The first law passed by the newly created Congress of the United States was the Judiciary Act of 1789. This set down the organization of the Supreme Court, Circuit Courts, and District Courts of the United States. Learn more with this article on the early development of the US Court System...

An interesting history-related post from RELIGION IN AMERICAN HISTORY:

When I entered graduate school, I had no idea what the word "historiography" was. The thought that historians had debates, schools of thought, and responded to one another was totally foreign to me. Thankfully, a senior student mentioned to me "Grob and Bilias ... they're your salvation" and they were. Now, I love historiography. I admire our profession and discipline so much that I try to nibble and sample whenever and wherever I can. In the last few days, I have put on about 10-15 lbs of historiographical weight because of Linford Fisher and his graduate students at Brown. They ...

Professor Vassil Nikolov has been working on an ancient settlement near the Bulgarian town of Provadia, and according to Sofia Globe, he's confident enough to call it the oldest urban settlement in Europe. Now obviously we have to wait for others to agree, but based on excavations this summer he dates the settlement to 4700 to 4200 BCE. It had walls three metres high and two metres thick, and would have housed around three hundred to three hundred and fifty people. The obvious reason for such a settlement is the salt which was produced nearby.

I just finished Ida Saxton: The Early Life of Mrs. McKinley, as well as reading all of the President at Home booklet I quoted in an earlier post. Since I give tours of the Saxon House, these have been on my "to be read" pile. The booklet is pretty neat and a nice history of the house and McKinley's life there...if you plan on going to the house, this is a neat read. Otherwise, well, not....I'll be honest.

Now the book...first, notice the link. If you want this book, buy it through the NFLL. It was privately printed ...

A comb excavated in central Germany has been discovered to contain the oldest engraving of runic characters known to the region. The deer antler comb, which was excavated seven years ago but only cleaned and examined recently, has runic letters saying 'Kama', which meant comb. They date from 150 CE, and were found in the Saxony-Anhalt region. The Local has a picture.

Soon after the adoption of the Constitution in 1789, the United States had to face its first real foreign policy tests. France became a republic and declared war on England. The Democratic -Republicans and the Federalists had different views on whether America should support its old ally, France. Washington struggled to maintain neutrality, knowing that being involved in a conflict like this so soon after independence would be a bad thing for the nation. Learn more with my newest article:

The first law passed by the newly created Congress of the United States was the Judiciary Act of 1789. This set down the organization of the Supreme Court, Circuit Courts, and District Courts of the United States. Learn more with this article on the early development of the US Court System...

Scientific American has recently digitized its archives, every issue of the magazine from the first one in August 28, 1845 to the most recent. Most of them can only be accessed by subscribers to the print edition, educational institutions with a site license or on a pay-per-view basis. There’s brief window during which those of us of a historico-nerdly bent can wallow as deeply as we please in all of the oldest issues free of charge. Until November 30, all of the Scientific American issues published between 1845 and 1909 will be available for free.

The Wheatleyan MomentDavid WaldstreicherDespite the recent profusion of interest in Phillis Wheatley by literary scholars, who increasingly recognize her artfulness and her challenge to slavery, she has not been seen as a political actor in real time. This essay argues for her canny timing and careful interventions in the politics of slavery from 1772 to 1784. The “Mansfieldian Moment” in the politics of slavery can also be called a Wheatleyan Moment, when leading whites were forced to ...

Hungary used to be much bigger than today, and so you sometimes get stories about medieval Hungary from nearby states. This is true about excavations at Alba Iulia in Romania, which has discovered a medieval church which may be the oldest known to be built in Hungary during the medieval period, circa 1000 CE. According to reports like this, the ruins will be reburied, and the outline traced in a park above it.

An interesting history-related post from RELIGION IN AMERICAN HISTORY:

Paul Harvey

Some of you may be looking for a good classroom resource for teaching about popular religion or witchcraft in early America. If so, this might be the book for you, so I'll reprint the Choice review below of Alison Games, Witchcraft in Early North America, put out as a pretty short classroom-usable volume by Rowman & Littlefield in their "American Controversies" series, edited by excellent historian Douglas Egerton. These volumes come with primary document selections, chronologies, and other pedagogical helps. (I have a volume coming out in late summer or so in the Rowman & Littlefield African ...

George Washington was a brash, self-confident, driven, and often daring and dashing young man, he was also at times indecisive and prone to make a bad judgment call or two. David A. Clary’s George Washington’s First War: His Early Military Adventures is a well balanced presentation of a young Colonel Washington who cut his teeth on the back-country of Virginia and the Ohio Valley, the future speculator and Revolutionary war hero thrived on achieving personal advancement and success. Washington earn some of what ...

I just got done watching Part 1 of the PBS series "God in America." I know I am behind (Part 2 aired tonight), but such is the life of a blogger, professor, and a new department chair.

The series begins with the Franciscan attempts to convert the Pueblo Indians to Christianity in the 17th century. This, of course, is a sad chapter in American history. The Spanish friars were militant. Their evangelistic zeal led to the destruction of Pueblo sacred sites and all sorts of brutality. The ...